In 1982 the Muslim Brotherhood, which Islam expert Robert Spencer has called "the parent organization of Hamas and al Qaeda," adopted a strategic plan known as "The Global Project for Palestine" which laid the groundwork for a terrorist "secret apparatus" that eventually would culminate in the creation of Hamas in December 1987 and the unveiling of the Hamas charter in August 1988. A 14-page plan written in Arabic and dated December 1, 1982, the Project outlined a 12-point strategy to “establish an Islamic government on earth.”

What makes the Project so different from the standard Islamist rhetoric (i.e., “Death of America! Death to Israel!” and “Establish the global caliphate!”), is that it represents a flexible, multi-phased, long-term approach to the “cultural invasion” of the West. Calling for the utilization of various tactics, ranging from immigration, infiltration, surveillance, propaganda, protest, deception, political legitimacy and terrorism, the Project has served since its drafting as the Muslim Brotherhood “master plan.” The following tactics and techniques are among the many recommendations made in the Project:

Putting into place a watchdog system for monitoring Western media to warn Muslims of “international plots fomented against them”;

Cultivating an Islamist intellectual community, including the establishment of think-tanks and advocacy groups, and publishing “academic” studies, to legitimize Islamist positions and to chronicle the history of Islamist movements;

Developing a comprehensive 100-year plan to advance Islamist ideology throughout the world;

Balancing international objectives with local flexibility;

Building extensive social networks of schools, hospitals and charitable organizations dedicated to Islamist ideals so that contact with the movement for Muslims in the West is constant;

Involving ideologically committed Muslims in democratically-elected institutions on all levels in the West, including government, NGOs, private organizations and labor unions;

Instrumentally using existing Western institutions until they can be converted and put into service of Islam;

Avoiding conflict within the Islamist movements on all levels, including the development of processes for conflict resolution;

Instituting alliances with Western “progressive” organizations that share similar goals;

Creating autonomous “security forces” to protect Muslims in the West;

Inflaming violence and keeping Muslims living in the West “in a jihad frame of mind”;

Supporting jihad movements across the Muslim world through preaching, propaganda, personnel, funding, and technical and operational support;

Making the Palestinian cause a global wedge issue for Muslims;

Adopting the total liberation of Palestine from Israel and the creation of an Islamic state as a keystone in the plan for global Islamic domination;

Instigating a constant campaign to incite hatred by Muslims against Jews and rejecting any discussions of conciliation or coexistence with them;

Actively creating jihad terror cells within Palestine;

Linking the terrorist activities in Palestine with the global terror movement; and

Collecting sufficient funds to indefinitely perpetuate and support jihad around the world.

As an outgrowth of this Project, in May 1991 the Muslim Brotherhood issued to its ideological allies an explanatory memorandum on "the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America." Explaining that the Brotherhood's mission was to establish "an effective and ... stable Islamic Movement" on the continent, this document outlined a "Civilization-Jihadist Process" for achieving that objective. It stated that Muslims "must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands ... so that ... God's religion [Islam] is made victorious over all other religions." For a comprehensive explanation of this "General Strategic Goal" -- and to view profiles of each of the 29 likeminded organizations of "friends" identified by the Muslim Brotherhood in that document -- click here.